On the same day Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School announced it would be changing its logo from a Native American-like symbol to a knight, students at Toms River South donned tribal headdresses and faux buckskins at a school sporting event.

The changes to Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s Raider logo comes a year after opposing petitions spotlighted a controversy over the use of Native American symbols at the high school’s sporting events.

The juxtaposition of Toms River South and Scotch Plains-Fanwood schools shows the dichotomy throughout New Jersey when it comes to the use of Native American school mascots and logos while also drawing the ire of Native American advocacy groups. An analysis by My Central Jersey has found 24 schools in New Jersey with Native American mascots, logos or names.

“As a Native American woman from Oklahoma, initially I was shocked,” Jessica Lee, a cultural sovereignty fellow at the Association on American Indian Affairs, said when she saw the photos from Toms River South. “These kids are running around like that, and like I said, it was just sickening. Shock and disgust were the main things I felt.”

Lee wasn't the only Native American person to take offense with the Toms River South sports teams.

“This is the real result of what happens when you have these mascots,” Erik Stegman, executive director of the Center for Native American Youth said. “It enables this kind of behavior and it’s deeply offensive.”

Supporters of the logo and mascot of the Toms River South Indians say their team's identity is a tradition that honors and respects Native American people.

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Toms River South baseball players congratulate one another in a game against Brick in 2016.(Photo11: P Ackerman/Staff Photographer, P Ackerman/Staff Photographer)

Toms River supporters

"We know there's sensitivity about the Native American mascot," Assistant Superintendent of Toms River Regional District James Ricotta said, "but what we work very hard on is educating students from day one."

Ricotta, who previously served as principal at Toms River High School South, said students from the first day of freshman year, students are placed in groups, referred to as "tribes," and taught about Native Americans and their culture.

"That's what the student body actually calls themselves," he said. "The tribe."

He said the school also has many Native American artifacts on display by its front entrance.

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Schools Superintendent David Healey speaks at the 128th annual commencement exercise of Toms River High School South at Detwiler Stadium on June 22, 2018.
Toms River, NJ
Friday, June 22, 2018
@dhoodhood(Photo11: Doug Hood )

The theme of Native Americans is intended to teach students family values and respect.

"It's been going on forever," Ricotta said, adding that Toms River South was the first high school in Toms River, and at the time of its founding 128 years ago there were Native Americans from the Lenni Lenape tribe living close by.

The tradition at Toms River South was the same when Gus Kakavas graduated the high school in 1970. He's now the president of Toms River High School South Alumni Association.

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"Our mascot is geared with the highest degree of reverence and respect," he said. "There's a strong, strong reverence from all of us who have passed through those doors at that school."

Compared to mascots like the Cleveland's Indians' Chief Wahoo, a red-colored cartoon of a Native American, Toms River High School South has always taken its Native American depiction seriously, Kakavas said, and never associated it with any caricatures or jokes.

As for the students dressed in Native American garb, Kakavas said that it is a part of a school tradition where students, with high grades and good behavior records, are appointed to act as a Native American chief and maiden to lead the school in cheers. He said students who are tasked with this role do not take the responsibility lightly.

"There's no joking about it," Kakavas.

Perhaps the foremost authority on the school's mascot tradition is Kakavas' high school history teacher, David Correll, who dealt with complaints about the school's mascot a few years back, according to Kakavas.

"Dave Correll is the living and breathing spirit of Toms River High School South," Kakavas said.

Correll recently retired after teaching at Toms River High School South for 50 years, but still volunteer sand runs the spirit club at the school an announces its football games.

"You've got to be very careful with this issue," Correll said. "I've learned that over the years."

Correll said he has attended "many pow wows" and over his years at the school he has learned that some Native Americans are against the mascots, but also that some are for them. He pointed to the Seminole Tribe and Florida State University's relationship as an example of the latter.

When Correll taught at Toms River High School South and served as the school's director of activities, he brought in several representatives from minority communities including a Native American from the Cherokee Nation as well as Samuel Proctor and Rosa Parks, he said.

"We basically present the Indian as a dignified individual," he said. "We present the Indians in a positive manner and we're proud of that."

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School spirit fills the William F. “Doc” Dougherty gymnasium at Toms River South High School Monday, November 21, 2016, during the taping of the Red Zone Road Show.(Photo11: THOMAS P. COSTELLO)

The issue

The Center for Native American Youth is an advocacy group for young Native Americans across the country, including those in American public schools.

Stegman, who belongs to Carry the Kettle First Nation, noted that psychologists have commented on the harm caused by Native American mascots.

“One of the things that gets missed in the public view about this issue is that it tends to focus on almost exclusively on major NFL teams or other sports franchises,” Stegman said. “What gets missed in the debate is really the impact these mascots and stereotypes on young Native people, particularly in schools.”

He said his organization aims to lift up the experiences of Native students in American public schools that have mascots based on Native American culture.

“As we point out in a lot of the research we pull together, there’s a serious impact on mental health,” he said.

In 2005, the American Psychological Association (APA) called for the immediate retirement of all Native American mascots, symbols, images and personalities by schools, colleges, universities, athletic teams and organizations.

“APA's position is based on a growing body of social science literature that shows the harmful effects of racial stereotyping and inaccurate racial portrayals, including the particularly harmful effects of American Indian sports mascots on the social identity development and self-esteem of American Indian young people,” the organization said in its recommendation.

The group said the use of Native American mascots can not only affect the mental health of Native students but send the wrong message to all students.

The logo used at Scotch Plains-Fanwood prior to 2004 depicted a Native American in a headdress.(Photo11: ~file photo)

"The use of American Indian mascots as symbols in schools and university athletic programs is particularly troubling because schools are places of learning,” former APA President Ronald F. Levant said in a statement. “These mascots are teaching stereotypical, misleading and too often, insulting images of American Indians. These negative lessons are not just affecting American Indian students; they are sending the wrong message to all students."

Despite the efforts of organizations like the APA and Native American advocacy groups, the majority of schools and sports organizations have kept their mascots and logos.

The schools

An analysis by My Central Jersey has found 24 schools in New Jersey with Native American mascots, logos or names. The comprehensive list, from www.gridironnewjersey.com, accounts for 342 schools, including public, private and Catholic schools. The schools with Native American mascots, team names or logos, and the description of each, are as follow:

Absegami Braves – Logo: Tan Native American man's head with feathers in hair

Before Scotch Plains-Fanwood Regional High School announced the change in its logo from a caricature of a man with an ax and shield to a knight in armor, there was push from the public in the form of petitions.

As with any debate, there were two sides.

The new Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School design.(Photo11: ~file art)

The petitions

One petition, created by Matthew Skolar, a student at the school, called for the end of the Scotch Plains-Fanwood logo used for the past decade.

“My goal is to keep the raider name, but remove its ties from indigenous people all together,” he wrote in the petition, which was addressed to Principal David Heisey and garnered 436 signatures.

An opposing petition created on the same day called for the exact opposite and gained 300 more signatures than the petition calling for a new logo.

The opposing petition, created by someone identified by the initials JC, called for a return of Scotch Plains-Fanwood’s original logo of arrow heads and chiefs, which was used for “generations.”

“These logos are deeply embedded in the hearts of all community members as we bleed blue,” JC said in the petition. Despite the logos being “accused of hate and racism,” the petition said, “at the end of the day it is community spirit and just a logo with no hate intended.”

The petition claimed that “the people crying for attention bringing race to a drawing is absolutely disgusting and the only thing keeping racism alive.”

The message billboard outside of Keyport High School.(Photo11: Aaron Bowers)

The same debate took place in Keyport when there was a push to change the name its high school’s sports team, known as the Red Raiders.

Unlike Scotch Plains-Fanwood, the decision made in Keyport was to keep the name and its affiliated spear logos.

“The general consensus in the community was people did not want this to change,” Phil Santiago, who as president of the Keyport Football Alumni Association led a “Save the Red Raider” movement, told the USA TODAY Network New Jersey. “They were strongly against it.”

The Scotch Plains-Fanwood petition in favor of keeping the logo also used a defense that Native American people are used to hear, according to Native American advocacy groups: honor.

“There is no hate for Native Americans,” the petition said, “we all know the struggles and injustice they face, and faced for the past 100 years. These logos praising the culture and supporting diversity are NOT presenting hate.”

Larger issue

“A lot of people make the argument that these mascots honor Native Americans,” said Lee of the Association on American Indians. “They absolutely do not.”

“We think it’s a part of a much larger issue,” said Keller O’Loughlin. “Historical trauma.”

Native American communities have been colonized and forced to assimilate in Western life, losing much of their history, culture and language along the way.

The scoreboard at Scotch Plains-Fanwood High School.(Photo11: Simeon Pincus)

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Native Americans have the highest suicide rate of any racial or ethnic group in the country and Native American youth have been found to have the highest substance abuse rates than any other population group, according to the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

“It all ties into historic federal assimilation policies,” Keller O’Loughlin said. “It’s no wonder that we don’t seem to care for the dignity of American Indian people in the way we do with Halloween costumes, and mascots, and mimicking typical Native American dress.”

Keller O’Loughlin said she believes changes in high school mascots is great opportunity for educating youth for the future by teaching about different languages of tribes and discussing their cultures. She commended the schools that have already done so.